September 4, 2019

Police Identify Suspects, Victim in Green Street Shooting

Outside of City Hall this afternoon, Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick ’09, Acting Police Chief Dennis Nayor and other members of IPD briefed the public on the status of the investigation into the shooting on Green Street this morning.

The primary suspect, named as Andrae Martin by Lieutenant John Joly during the conference, is a 33-year-old African American male between 5’10” and 6 feet, with an average build. Police say Martin used a .357 caliber revolver, firing five shots. A search for Martin is ongoing.

The victim, identified as 30-year-old Shayne Lott of Rochester, was first taken to Cayuga Medical Center and then a regional trauma center, Nayor said. He was shot multiple times and is in the Intensive Care Unit.

Myrick, who said he was meeting with the acting chief during the time of the shooting, cited today’s shooting as an example of the police force’s cohesion.

Courtesy of Ithaca Police Department

Police released this photo of Andrae G. Martin, who is a primary suspect in Wednesday morning’s shooting.

The investigation, which involved collaboration between the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, state police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, involved four crime scenes, police said.

These included the site of the shooting on Green Street, the location Lott was found, the location where an additional suspect was apprehended after fleeing on a bicycle with the firearm involved in the shooting and the location where that suspect tried to dispose of said firearm.

Police arrested Woodrow Turner of Ithaca, charging him for criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and tampering of evidence. He was taken to the Tompkins County Jail, Lieutenant John Joly said in a press release Wednesday evening. Turner, police say, tried to dispose of the revolver.

“Everyone’s feeling a bit traumatized,” Myrick said, echoing the contents of a Facebook post uploaded just moments before his public remarks. Myrick, who emphasized the “wake up call” nature of the incident, notified the public of the shooting in a tweet this morning at 10:01 a.m. Police say they received their first call regarding the shots at 9:44 a.m.

“And it’s clear that an act of violence like this has more than just one victim,” Myrick wrote in the lengthy post, where he urged those with ideas to stem violence in the city to contact his office. “I’ve spoken to dozens of witnesses and others who heard the shots and took shelter in their homes, offices and stores.”

“Incidents of violence like this in our city are so troubling in part because they’re so rare,” Myrick said.

This past summer saw two incidents of stabbing. On July 17, a stabbing at Auden Ithaca apartment, just yards from the Cornell campus, resulted in the victim dying from his wounds. A second knife assault occurred later in July, 14850.com reported.

Sarah Skinner is the managing editor of the 137th Editorial Board and was an assistant news editor on the 136th Editorial Board. She can be reached at sskinner@cornellsun.com or via WhatsApp at 252-305-9030.

Ithaca Police identified a package that contained materials used in the production of methamphetamine near Wal-Mart Monday, according to an Ithaca Police press release. At 11:30 a.m. Monday, officers responded to a report of a suspicious package by Fairgrounds Memorial Parkway, just under a block from Wal-Mart’s store.